MEETING 3
You're Myself, I'm Yourself
The party awakens. Each of them open their eyes to see they are standing. As their vision clears, they notice a short man with a long nose sitting across from them. The man's lip curls into a smile. He laughs quietly.
"Hello. Welcome to the Velvet Room," he says in a gentle, yet drawn out voice. He continues, "This place exists between dream and reality, mind and matter."
Vivian looks around her. On the walls are enormous clocks. Through the semi-transparent glass of the clocks, she can see nothing but a thick, violet haze. The inside of the room looks like some kind of lounge, but all of the furniture is colored the same velvet color.
The long-nosed man laughs again. "Please, sit down. You six must be exhausted." The man gestured in front of him, where a long couch lies behind a table. After a bit of hesitation, they all sit. "I can't remember the last time I had so many guests. Only those who have entered into a special contract are allowed to enter this room."
"But we didn't sign any contract," Zachariah protests.
"Oh, on the contrary." The man across from them waves his hand over the table. As it passes over the table, an old document appears. The document is stained with blood on the line where a signature would normally go. "This contract states that you accept responsibility for your actions and choose this fate of your own free will."
"Pfft, how are we supposed to know that. Nobody can read THAT," Micah complains.
"Yet, despite being unable to know what it says, you were compelled to sign it anyway." The man laughs. "My, the Moon sure is a strange one."
"Okay, maybe we did sign that thing, but we didn't know that we'd end up in some room with an old guy we don't even know! It says nothing about THAT in your contract!" Mia revolts.
"Oh, my. You're correct. You haven't learned my name yet, nor I yours. Not formally anyway. I do apologize. My name is Igor. I am the keeper of this Velvet Room. And you are my guests. I am not here to do you any harm. You have all awoken to your power together and I am here to assist you. In this dire time, you will require the aid of someone not from your plane of existence. Normally, I deal with fusions for those lucky few who are empty, who can hold multiple Personas. Seeing as how none of you are the Fool, however, I have decided to change ever so slightly. This room has a lot of power. In this room, you will be able to make your Personas more powerful than previously."
"What is that mean?" Ragnar asks in broken English.
"It means that, in this room, you can... Well, let's call it 'leveling up,' shall we?" Igor replies.
"Leveling up?" Vivian asks.
"Indeed. Unlike the last few guests I've had, it seems that you are able to summon your Personas in the real world as well, unable to be seen by those without the power. You would do best to keep this in mind. It may come in handy in the future. Now then, time marches on in your world. I believe it may be time for you to awaken. The time you next come here, it will be of your own free will."
The party's vision begins to blur and fade. All at once, the party loses consciousness.
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 19
AFTERNOON
The party wakes up. They are all in separate hospital rooms. Vivian sits up in her bed. She looks around and gets off of her bed. She looks out the window and sees that she is on the first floor. She looks at the door slightly and grabs the window. After forcing it open, she jumps out with all of her things.
Ragnar wakes up and sees his materials in the room with him. He stands up and leaves with all of his stuff. Not seeing Sven, he asks the receptionist. "Where is Sven? Is about this tall, adorable face. He is brother."
"Um, I'm not sure," the woman at the counter replies, "Perhaps try going home, he may be waiting for you there." Ragnar checks out and leaves.
Zachariah wakes up. After grabbing his things, he checks out of the hospital.
Micah wakes up to find a brace around his sprained ankle. The nurse comes in as he sits up.
"Hey, what's going on here?" he asks the nurse.
"I'm not really sure. There were seven of you, just passed out in the park last night. And a walrus."
"Is everyone in this hospital?" he asks.
"Mmhmm. Except the walrus. We sent him to the vet. They probably know what to do with him better than we would."
Micah thanks her and checks out.
Liam wakes up with his Lee Wheeler mask on. He looks around and quickly changes into Kian Miles, Doctor in Training. He walks through the halls and runs into a nurse.
"Oh, hello... Doctor?" The nurse has never seen him before.
"Hello, Nurse. Any patients today?" Liam asks.
"W-well, there were these highschool students that were passed out in the park. We have no idea why, they all just seem to be exhausted. Would you like to check on them?" the nurse asks.
"S-sure. Why not?"
The nurse takes Liam to the room that he just exited. The nurse is shocked to find it empty. "Why is it empty?" she wonders aloud.
"Relax, I'm sure he's fine. Take me to see another one," Liam says.
"R-right. A few of them checked out, but there's a young girl who is still here." The nurse takes him to see Vivian's room. The nurse is shocked to see Vivian missing as well, window open.
"W-WHAT! WHY ARE PEOPLE BREAKING OUT! THIS IS A HOSPITAL, NOT A PRISON!" the nurse shouts in surprise.
Liam places his hand on the nurse's shoulder. "Fear not, ma'am. I will bring her back." Liam quickly dives out the window and runs off.
The nurse looks at the open window with a blank expression. "I need to transfer hospitals..."
Mia checks out like a normal-ass person.
Ragnar walks around for a little while. Before long, his scent catches Sven's nose. Without warning, a walrus bursts through the nearby vet's window.
"Sven!" Ragnar shouts. He tosses a piece of salmon jerky through the window.
Vivian leaves the hospital and looks up. The labyrinth above the park is still there. She decides to investigate. Once she arrives at the park, she notices the large, translucent chain. She grabs at it to make sure that it's real. A young boy walks up to her.
"What are you doing?" he asks.
Vivian looks at the chain for a second before looking back at the boy. She realizes that he can't see it. "Um. A work out. It really hones your biceps!"
"oh, really? Cool!" The little boy starts waving his hands in the air like Vivian just was.
Vivian jumps onto the chain and becomes translucent like the chain.
"H-hey. Where'd she go?" the kid asks.
Vivian climbs up to the top of the chain. She enters a hexagonal room. The room is full of books and shelves. In the middle of the room is a large shelf.
Sven and Ragnar look to the sky and see Vivian climbing up the large chain. The two go to the park. In the park, they see a kid, waving his hands around like a weirdo. He sees Sven. Getting scared, he runs off.
"Oh, bye bye!" Ragnar shouts as he leaves.
Sven jumps onto Ragnar's back and they climb the chain.
Zachariah leaves the hospital. He remembers the labyrinth that appeared from Alicia's body and makes his way to the park. When he gets there, Ragnar is on the chain as well as Vivian. Zachariah thinks for a second. He remembers the words of the long-nosed man. "It seems that you are able to summon your Personas in the real world as well, unable to be seen by those without the power. You would do best to keep this in mind. It may come in handy in the future." Zachariah steps up to the chain. He focuses and a transparent, blue card floats in front of him. "Persona!" he shouts, crushing the card. The fallen angel, Samandriel, appears. Zachariah jumps onto its shoulder and flies up with his Persona's help.
Liam sees Vivian and changes masks back to Lee Wheeler. He tries to follow Vivian, but she's too fast. He quickly loses her. He later sees Vivian half-way up the chain leading to the labyrinth. He makes his way to the park. He tries climbing the chain, but he gets tired half-way up. He thinks about how he could get up. He remembers his aliases. He dons the Daniel Middleton mask, the mask of a renowned body builder, and climbs all the way up. Before he gets to the top, he changes back to Lee Wheeler, fake name.
Micah walks to the park after seeing so many people on the chain. He climbs halfway up and is unable to climb sees Zachariah flying with his Persona. "Hey, Zachariah! Get your ass down here!" Reluctantly, he floats down to help Micah. He grabs Micah off the chain. The wait is too much for Zachariah to handle and he begins to lose altitude, slowly. After about ten feet, he places Micah back onto the chain.
"Sorry," Zachariah says, "Turns out this was a bad idea." Zachariah flies back up.
Vivian is alone in the library-esque room. She hears a noise from behind the book shelf.
"Shit, it's those monsters again!" Vivian shouts. She summons Lord Frost and punches the bookshelf over. Two hands come from the sides of the bookshelf and one of them remains down, under the bookshelf. The black hands have a blue face at the top and walk on their fingers.
One of the hands attacks Vivian with Bufu. It strikes Vivian, but deals no damage. The other hand strikes Vivian with Zio, hitting her.
Ragnar and Zachariah arrive at the top of the chain. Ragnar stands and sees the hands. "Oh, Vivian friend. Helo."
"Guys, help me!" Vivian cries.
Ragnar pulls out his battle axe and swings it. He misses the enemy. Zachariah summons Samandriel and uses Garu, but misses as well.
"Thanks..." Vivian replies. "There's one under the shelf, too. It's down!" Vivian summons Lord Frost and uses Sonic Punch. She hits one of the Killing Hands and it gets thrown back slightly. The shadow under the bookshelf stands. It casts Agi, but Vivian dodges. Another shadow uses Agi on Ragnar and hits him. The last hand casts Bufu on Zachariah and hits him.
Liam and Micah make their way up to the top of the labyrinth.
"More shadows, eh? No problem!" Micah pulls out his revolver. He aims at one and fires. "Bang!" he shouts. The bullet flies through the air and strikes one of the shadows, hard. The shadow burst. The bullet kept flying until it hit the wall and ricocheted to strike another shadow, killing that one as well.
Liam jumps in and summons Manticore, casting Agi. He hits the last one, defeating it.
"We did it!" Vivian shouts. Vivian's phone suddenly begins ringing. Vivian answers her phone. "Hello?"
"Guys, where are you? I just saw you all climb up that giant chain!" Mia shouts over the phone.
"What's that? I can't hear you. It's really bad reception in here," Vivian lies.
"What? I can hear you just fine!" Mia replies angrily.
"S-sorry, what was that, I really can't hear you," Vivian says, hanging up her phone.
The phone rings again. Vivian answers reluctantly. "Hello?"
Mia is on the phone again. "Yeah, I know you're lying about that. I can sense the room that you're in just fine. I think it's my Persona."
Vivian looks down the hole that everyone climbed through. At the base of the chain is Mia with Hydra looming over her.
"Oh," Vivian says. "Well can you come up here with us?"
"Are you kidding? There's no WAY I'm climbing that!" Mia shouts.
"Baby..." Vivian says under her breath.
"What?"
"Nothing." Vivian quickly relays the information that she received over the phone to the rest of the party.
"Ey, Zach. Go send your Persona down ta pick her up," Micah orders.
Zachariah releases a short, maniacal laugh. "Fine, but I'm still getting used to it, so I may end up really injuring her on my way back up."
"No, don't come get me, I'm okay here!" Mia replies as soon as she hears it.
Vivian turns away from her phone. "She says she can stay down there." Vivian puts her phone on speaker.
"It seems like the room you're in is safe. There don't seem to be any more shadows."
"That's cuz we kicked their asses!" Micah boasts.
"Regardless, I think you can freely look around now," Mia tells them.
"Well, in that case, I'd like to check out what's in this room. Ragnar, do you mind helping me lift this back up?" Vivian and Ragnar lift up the bookcase that Vivian knocked over in the last fight.
Liam looks at the stairs. "Well, I want to check out what the rest of this place has to offer." Liam walks up the stairs.
"Hey, Lee. If you want to go, it'd be best not to go alone. We don't know the dangers of this place yet." Zachariah turns to Micah, "Come up with us," he orders.
"Fine, I was going to do that anyway," Micah says. The three of them go up to the next floor.
Ragnar notices an old-looking book. The pages are worn and it looks as if it's over a hundred years old. "Hm... What think, Sven?"
Sven tells Ragnar that the book is about a boy with a scar who goes to a wizarding school.
"Cold!" Ragnar exclaims. He sits down to read it.
Vivian notices all of the books seem to have something to do with the arcane. "Hey, maybe we can find a clue about our Personas here..." Vivian picks up book after book, only to open them and find nothing about the spells that they have been casting for the past couple of hours. "Ugh! This is all garbage!" Vivian shouts in frustration. She takes a few of the books and tosses them down the hole they arrived through while screaming "Cyka blyat CYKA BLYAT," which, according to Urban Dictionary is Russian slang, saying "The formal known version of this particular word is translated to simply- "whore" "slut" and other words that explain the oldest profession in this world. Yet, Russians (and lately, Israelis as one, even without a slavic roots in blood) are using this term as a link-word, as a curse, almost anything you can imagine (URBAN DICTIONARY)," but, in accordance with Google Translate, means "JUICE juice fuck fuck," so you, the reader, may just pick which one you want it to mean. Personally, I like the second one. "Forget this, I'm going upstairs!" Vivian marches angrily up the stairs while Ragnar remains reading with Sven.
Liam, Zachariah, and Micah arrive in the second floor of the labyrinth. The room is a larger hexagon shape than the one below. There are several piles of books and a few tables as well.
"Look at all of these books," Liam says.
"What are they doing here? Are they Alicia's do you think?" Zachariah asks.
"That's right, she created this place, didn't she?" Micah responds. Without warning, Micah feels a pain in his thigh. He looks down and sees a poison dart. "What the? Something just shot at me."
They look around for a bit. Liam points at a table with a blue mask nearby. "There, another shadow!"
"Seriously? Again!" Zachariah asks. Zachariah runs forward. "Persona!" He crushes the tarot card in front of him and casts Zio on the Laughing Table.
"I can finish it off!" Lee pulls out his revolver and fires at the table, knocking it down.
Micah takes out his gun and shoots as well. The Laughing Table loses two of its legs.
Vivian makes her way into the room. As she runs up the stairs, she pushes forward and punches the table. Mia is heard from the phone.
"Watch out! There's another Crying Table up there!"
A dart gets fired at Vivian, poisoning her. "Something's shooting at me!" she warns.
"I still can't find it," Mia reminds them.
"Well once you do, we need that thing scanned!" Zachariah orders.
"Right."
Lee moves around the room and sees something move by a stack of books on the other side of the room. "There! I see it!"
Micah moves into range so he can fire at the enemy, piercing his bullet through the table.
"I got it!" Zachariah shouts, casting Garu. The wind attack blows from underneath the Crying Table and flips it over near Lee, breaking its leg. As the table stands, Lee casts Agi. The shadow bursts into flames before getting destroyed.
"I think that's it. I don't sense any more shadows near you guys," Mia tells them.
